The ultimate in creativity

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mytwosonsAn extremely rare photo of me with my two sons. On your left/my right is the one we call Scott (his friends call him T.J.; his work colleagues call him Terry), who was born in 1973. On your right/my left is Tyler (also known as Tyger, Ty-Bye, and Daddy), who was born in 1975.

Tyler and I gave a recital yesterday at Christ Church Episcopal in Warren, OH. The title was “Showtunes and Hymntunes.” We had a great time, and the performance was warmly received by the audience.

Scott came from Dallas for the performance. I only see him once every couple of years, and it was wonderful to have them both together.

That’s what I created (with the help of their dad, of course).

Really?

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HeadlinersAbout two months ago my son suggested we do a recital together. He is a “mercenary Episcopalian,” the paid singer/soloist at a nearby Episcopal church. He agreed to do this recital as part of their Sunday afternoon concert series, and the offering to be taken would benefit the church’s music program. Unfortunately, the only date open coincided with the final performance in the Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus’s four-concert series of the Mozart Requiem. (It also ended up coinciding with the launch of a new website for Kent State, for which Tyler had much responsibility. Can you say “stress”?)

Concert week with Cleveland means I have to be at Severance Hall every night of that week. That’s over three-and-a-half hours out of every day just for the driving. Plus an extra half-hour or more (depending on weather and road conditions) to get there, park, walk in, “use the facilities,” find my assigned seat, and take a deep breath. And another three-and-a-half hours for rehearsal/performance. Are you doing the math?

Also during the day I need time to practice my repertoire for the evening rehearsal/performance. And I need to rehearse for my son’s recital. And I’m acting as campaign treasurer for a friend who is running for the Ohio House of Representatives, and the secretary of state doesn’t like treasurers to file late reports.

Of course I wanted a new dress to wear for the performance. To make, not to buy. The problem was finding the time—I already had fabric and patterns.

I carved half-hour and hour-long chunks out of the available time whenever I could. And then this happened, (sharing my Facebook post of Friday morning):

I. Drive. Myself. Crazy. That is all.

(For the appreciation of my creative friends, I sewed the wrong side of the skirt back to the right side of the skirt front. Black fabric with black thread. Double-stitched seams. Now grumbling as I rip out about four yards of thread. Realizing I may not have a new dress to wear to Sunday’s recital. )

And my comment:

Jas – bless his heart – said, “Honey, you have so many beautiful things you can wear. You’re the only person who will know what you’re wearing is not new.”

Last night as we got into bed after I wore my new dress (see next blog post…), I asked the Jazzman if he liked it. He said, “You’re nuts.” Of course, he used his most loving voice to make that comment, but I knew exactly what he meant. I’m good at driving myself crazy.

Good vs. Bad

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cocoon2A month ago I bought StyleArc Patterns’ Sunny Top. To me it looked cute, easy, and chic. At the time the pattern arrived, we were still knee-deep in snow, and a sweater knit I had bought from Gorgeous Fabrics several years ago was begging to be released from my stash. I could picture it as Sunny, paired with dark brown leggings as the perfect excuse for a pair of brown low-heeled booties.

Last week I was able to carve a couple of hours out of campaign work and sewed up Sunny in my brown and rust sweater knit.

cocoon6cocoon5Easy. Quick. Straightforward. Ugly. Butt-ugly. The Jazzman, who will never say to me, “You look nice today” (I assume this means I always look nice so there’s nothing out of the ordinary that requires commenting upon.), looked at me staring into the full-length mirror and said, “That’s not flattering.” He hit that nail on the head!

COCOON1I realized I need to pay more attention to the StyleArc fabric suggestions. When the pattern envelope back says “slinky knit,” I need to cut into a slinky knit. (I’m using “slinky” here as an adjective, not as a proper noun.) StyleArc thoughtfully attaches a switch of the original fabric with the fabric. I will henceforth and forevermore pay attention!

I still liked the pattern. I just didn’t like it in that too-heavy sweater knit. Doing a little late-night online fabric shopping, cocoonfabricI picked up a length of PRL (polyester/rayon/lycra) from Gorgeous Fabrics. Ann Steeves has a new website at GF—if you’re a fabriholic, it’s a must-see. This RPL is the same fabric I used for two tops I made for my November trip to Europe with the Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus (Top 1 and Top 2). It has a very cuddly-sweatery feeling without being winter-warm. The color of this new top means I’ll wear it all spring (which is almost here) and into the summer.

Here’s the review:

Pattern Description: SUNNY KNIT TOP: This is a new shape for a knit top. The oversized look becomes very flattering because of pattern drafting and the cocoon shape which is the new on trend look. Try it, you will love it!!

Pattern Sizing: 4-30. I get very nervous with patterns that are not multi-sized, but took the plunge for this cute top. I wear a 38DD bra; size 14 says 40.2″ bust. It fits fine.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it? Yes.

Were the instructions easy to follow? Yes, although it does not tell you when to sew the center back seam. Do it either before or after you sew the shoulder seams. (I think it should be step 4a.)

cocoon3What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern? I looked for reviews before cutting into the fabric and couldn’t find any. Now I find two – both saying the same thing: the sleeves are tight. Actually, I’m more bothered by the tightness of the armscye. That needs to be fixed – maybe cut the sleeve head wider and taper in. The arms actually fit like those of my favorite Eileen Fisher boxy cowl sweater. It’s just that the armscye seam feels kinda funky.

cocoon4I questioned the center back seam. It’s a straight seam, why is it necessary. I wrote StyleArc about it (and about the missing instruction for sewing that seam). I quickly received a nice email from “Chloe and the StyleArc team”, saying that the CB seam was there to give you more efficient pattern placement on the fabric – i.e. lower the yardage requirement for this top. It is a straight seam. If you’ve got enough fabric and don’t want the seam there, don’t do it.

Fabric Used: RPL from Gorgeous Fabrics

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made: I don’t have a serger. Okay, I have one, but I don’t know how to use it. It sewed 3/8″ seams rather than 1/4″, then double stitched them at 1/4″. On the center back seam, I just sewed at 3/8″, then pressed open and double-needle topstitched it. This is a technique that Katherine Tilton uses in Vogue 8691 and it makes a nice look and a secure seam.

My only change was to lengthen the top 2″. As the seams are straight at the bottom of the top piece, I simply drew these pattern pieces 2″ longer, rather than slashing and spreading. I love the length. If you look at my blog post and notice the “bad” version (which is cut to the pattern length) versus the “good” version (2″ longer), I think you’ll see the difference.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others? Yes and Yes. Note to all: use a soft knit as Chloe suggests. Don’t go off on your own rocky road. For this top, softer and slinkier is better!

Conclusion: Love it! Will definitely be making this again.

Personal note 1: This is the first post I’ve written since I got a new MacBook Pro. I got my first one, used, in March of 2010. Since that date I’ve been writing without an external keyboard or a mouse. With the new purchase, I broke down and got both keyboard and mouse. HAPPYHAPPYHAPPY! They’re not that expensive. Why did I put it off for so long?

Personal note 2: You like that scarf in the first picture, don’t you. That’s the Safety Scarf. I’m absolutely loving it, and will write a full post about it in a couple of days.

WIP-Safety Scarf

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safetyscarf3The Jazzman is on his annual golf outing to Florida with four of his best golfing buddies. I both look forward to and dread this week every year. “Look forward to” because it’s a time I answer to no one but the cats. I can stay in my jammies all day. I can eat breakfast for all three meals. I can spend the entire time in my sewing room. Or in bed, for that matter. “Dread” because—wait for it—I’m afraid of the dark. Yep. Me. Sixty-something woman who has covered a lot of ground in her life. Afraid of the dark.

Ever since I was a little girl, I have always thought some badguy was standing outside the window watching me, wanting to harm me. I don’t know where this came from. I pride myself on being a logical-thinking, rational human being. But I’m not. I’m afraid of things that go bump in the night.

I live in an 87-year-old house. Lots of things go bump every night.

When the Jazzman is here with me, I’m not afraid. But when I’m alone, I’m prone to stay upstairs in one room with all the shades drawn.

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Short story time: Twelve-or-so years ago, I lived with a fiancé and his 14yo daughter in a very lovely but very large house in Tucson. He and I went out one night to a party, leaving the daughter at home alone. When we arrived back home two hours later, every light in the house was on. Every single light! When we walked into her bedroom, she had the largest skillet from the kitchen on the bed with her. Yep, afraid of the dark. It didn’t matter that we lived in a gated community and the house had a security system that was armed while we were away. She was pumped and primed to bash any badguy over the head with the skillet.
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This week however, I’ve been sick. I picked up a sore throat on Thursday morning. By Friday night it had developed into an upper respiratory whatever, and yesterday the doctor pronounced Upper Respiratory Infection and gave me a Z-Pak. All I’ve wanted to do all week is to sit on the couch with knitting needles in hand.

A couple of weeks ago I had visited The Flaming Ice Cube in Boardman. They were offering a class on brioche knitting. My schedule wouldn’t allow me to take the class, but I like exploring, so I bought some suitable yarn and the pattern. (With the help of my friend Melinda, I chose HiKoo SimpliWorsted in a gray sparkle and a light and dark gray variegated. This yarn is washable and soft—a great combination.) That night I sat down to start the cowl.

Twelve rows into it, I realized I wasn’t having fun. There was nothing about this cowl that was bringing me any joy. Without a backward glance, I pulled the whole twelve rows apart and rolled the yarn balls back up. Then I turned to Ravelry where, after a lot of searching and flipping through pages, I found Stephen West’s “Safety Scarf.” It looked like much more fun, and only required two more skeins of this reasonably priced yarn.

Now, after three days alone and about 30 episodes of “Breaking Bad,” I’m finished with the fourth section and midway through the fifth. And I love this scarf.

My Canadian cyberfriend Jeannie asked for more photos, so I wanted to give you a WIP post. (Work in Progress, if you’re unfamiliar with that acronym.)

safetyscarfsafetyscarf2I greatly enjoyed Section 3 of this scarf, which is shown in the photos on this post. But it’s not for the distractible. Four rows form the pattern. Rows 1&2 are in the main color; rows 3&4 are in the contrast color. The odd-numbered rows are the right side (photo on left) and a modified cable pattern gives that stitch that spans a couple of rows. The even-numbered rows are the wrong side (photo on right) and are basically knit 3, purl/slip 1. That purl/slip is what gets the distracted knitter, though. Attention must be paid! Row 2 is K3/P1. Row 4 is K3/Sl1. And if you reverse those, your pattern is blown.

SafetyScarfBadThe first time through, I was 29 rows into the 60-row section when I realized something was very wrong. I looked at the directions again and realized that when I slip a stitch on the wrong side of the “fabric”, I was to hold the yarn in front. I was holding it in back, which gave these little lockstitches. (See the horizontal cream-colored bars in the photo? Those don’t belong there!) Now those lockstitches could be kinda cool in the right environment, but this wasn’t that environment! So I pulled out 29 rows and started again.

The next time I was only about 15 rows in when I discovered a problem.

After my third restart and unknit, I went to the computer and created a spreadsheet. I can always follow a spreadsheet.

So after four starts (which, coincidentally, is the same number of Kleenex boxes I’ve emptied in the past two days&jdash;from nose-blowing, not from crying), I have now finished Section 3 and all the remaining episodes of “Breaking Bad.”

Finished Section 4 (only 4 rows) and now on Section 5, I’m searching for something to watch that will get me through the rest of this scarf.

The only problem: I can’t remember what happened in the last scene of BB. This is the way I am with all books and movies. I can remember everything that leads up to the end, but I can’t remember the exact end. Now I need to fast forward through Season 5, Episode 16, so I can remember how it ended with Jesse and Walt.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go swig some DayQuil and find that last episode of “Breaking Bad.”

Preteen Playdate

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B1Last Sunday when my son popped by for a minute with my grandkids in tow, my grandson said, “Grandma, can I come over next weekend and sew a wallet? I made a wallet for myself out of paper but it’s falling apart.”

The most special thing to me about this exchange is that he didn’t say—to his mom or his dad or his grandma—”can you buy me a wallet?” He said, “I want to make a wallet.” Such an activity was within his realm of possibilities!

In preparation, I started searching the internet and came upon Allisa Jacobs’ blog and her tutorial for “Father’s Day Men’s Wallet.” It looked like it might just meet Boston’s needs.

I had the pleasure of hosting the grands tonight. Their mom texted me this afternoon to remind me, to tell me what time she’d drop them off, and to let me know that Boston wanted to make a wallet tonight. I told her I wasn’t sure we’d be able to get it all done tonight, as there were many steps in the project. Not only did we get it done, but we also had time to cook some supper in the middle there.

CoatingThe first order of business was to find fabric. I had some leftover soft wool flannel from my Marcy Tilton coat (whose construction, I just realized, I never blogged – oops). He thought that would be nice. BThen I took him to a stash container that I knew held some good 100% cotton quilting fabrics that would be a good weight for the inside. I knew there were prints of bricks and abstracts and other things I thought a 12½-year-old boy might like. But the thing that caught his eye was a salmon polka dot. That was what he had to have. Next we looked a threads. He found a soft orange that went well with the salmon. For the topstitching on the outside, he saw several variegated Sulky threads that he liked. I showed him a single row of stitching, then I showed him a double-needle topstitching treatment, and he loved it.

B2On to cutting and construction. The boy has been using a rotary cutter since he was six. I held the ruler, he operated the cutter. No fingers were sacrificed. We cut the flannel, then started to lay out the cotton, which had been folded for about five years. “Grandma, can I iron that? I like to iron.” A man after my own heart! He meticulously removed all the folds, then we cut the inside and the pocket. I showed him how the pockets would work, we counted his gift cards—from Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, iTunes, and Handel’s Ice Cream, the local favorite—and I showed him how we could add an extra pocket that wasn’t in the pattern. We cut, then he folded and pressed the pockets. He did the edgestitching on the pocket folds, machine-basted the pockets together, sewed the seam down the middle to create the card pockets. He fused the interfacing, figured out how to lay the right sides together (and why), and sewed around the edge, leaving the opening for turning.

B3“Where’s the chopstick,” he asked, when it was time to turn the wallet. The boy knows how I do things and what my favorite tools are.

We pressed, I hand-sewed the opening closed, he pressed some more. All that was left was the topstitching. The way he was sitting on the easy chair, I sensed he might be feeling a little uneasy about the topstitching. “Would you like me to do it, or do you want to?”, I asked. “Maybe you could do it, Grandma.” So I did. Then he pressed some more. (Look at that cutie pie. Look at those dimples and that sweet face. Can you understand how he has me wrapped around his heart?!)

B9When he went to load it with all his gift cards, I realized the second pocket that we had added was too deep for the cards. They would get lost. I said, “Next time we make this …” and showed him how we could topstitch across the pocket before basting them all together so the card pockets would be identical depths. B6Then I realized I could probably hand-sew it after the fact so they’d be equal depths. We measured the first pocket, then measured down the same distance on the second pocket. While he pulled the first pocket down, I grabbed a needle and thread and sewed a line across as much of the pocket as I could. I held my hand down inside so I wouldn’t go through to the outside. Gotta be able to get those bills into the money pocket! (No, it doesn’t stick up out of his back pocket like that. But we wanted you to be able to see it.)

B7B8

And, about two hours after we started, we were finished. He carefully put the cards in place, then lined up his bills and tucked them in. He tucked it into his hip pocket and, as a last step in the process, took his old paper wallet and threw it in the trashcan.

I’m still smiling!

P.S. Pics of the original wallet. That’s an engineer-in-training, if I ever saw one!

walletp2walletp3walletp1

Antiquities

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Laundry CartThe previous owner of my house was a 92-year-old woman who had fallen and moved to a nursing home. She had never married, never had children, and her nephews were charged with selling her house. The nephews were all in their 50s and 60s and had no use for her possessions. Most of her things stayed in the house when I bought it. This was convenient for me, as I had gotten rid of many of my possessions in Tucson before I moved, knowing I would be living with my son and daughter-in-law for at least a year.

The sofa and loveseat that were seriously marred by catscratches were reupholstered and now stand in my living room and library. The dining room suite stayed in place; the two chests now hold my antique serving pieces. Matching dark green wicker chairs are on the side porch and allow us to eat our dinners in comfort all summer long. The most used item that stayed was the laundry basket.

laundry3This is the old-fashioned folding laundry cart on wheels. My mom had one. If you were born in the 50s or earlier, your mom probably had one, too. The one in my basement laundry area probably dates from the 40s or 50s in this vintage 1927 house.

The woman I bought from was also a sewist and it looks like she made the laundry cart liner. It was an orange and yellow print, probably 100% cotton, probably bought from the sewing department of Strouss-Hirshberg or McKelvey’s. But it had seen better days. Tears were starting to appear from overuse; if I didn’t replace it pretty son, it would completely deteriorate and the dirty laundry would be on the floor!

laundry2Yesterday I pulled the liner off the cart and started removing all the stitching. It turned out to be two major pattern pieces—the bottom and the sides, plus some seam binding for the raw edges. When it was all flat, I pressed the pieces, then started digging through my stash. Rather than stick with a gingham-weight cotton, I found some upholstery-weight cotton that had been stashed since Boston was born. Both Boston’s and Ridley’s nurseries had been decorated with jungle animal prints, and this midweight cotton/linen was printed with shades of olive and rust and gold, with zebras and lions and other jungle animals peeking out here and there.

laundryI laid out the fabric, laid out and pinned the pattern pieces to it and cut them out, making sure I remembered how I took it apart so I could put it all back together. Two hours later, I had a new liner for my laundry basket.

What had been a tough morning at the computer became a happy morning in my sewing room. And now, every time I roll the cart to the laundry chute to transport the next load of laundry, I will look at it and smile.

I’m thinking I might even make a pattern to sell on Etsy. If I needed a new liner, mightn’t someone else, also? I think so.

Here’s a little blast from the past for you from the Department Store Museum blog. Strouss’ department store. Even a garden shop on the top floor!

Measure Once, Cut Twice

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curtainsNo, wait. That’s not right. I think it was supposed to be “Measure Twice, Cut Once.” Oops.

Back in November, when I had just returned from ten days in Europe and we had started this never-ending winter, DS told me that DGS needed some draperies on his bedroom windows in the new rental house. There were sheers on the windows, but nothing that afforded any privacy.

Being the good grandma that I am, I measured both windows and wrote the measurements down in the Notes app on my iPhone. A few days later, I snuck into Jo-Ann Fabrics on Saturday morning after Thanksgiving. I had great coupons in the Jo-Ann’s app on my phone, and the line wasn’t bad at all. I scored great fabric and insulated lining (along with some fleece to make DGD’s blanket) for a great price, and brought it home to stash for my next sewing opportunity.

Then I got involved in a political campaign, and my sewing moments are few and far between. But last weekend I carved time out and set to work.

I had measured the south window at 29.5″x56.5″ and the west window at 29″x57″. I wanted the curtains to come just below the window sill, as both walls have heat vents at the baseboard below the window. Going just below the sill would give my much-needed privacy without obstructing much-needed heat. A young man who’s going to be a teenager in August has his needs, knowwhatImean?

I decided to start with the west window, finish that piece, then run it to my son’s house to make sure it fit. I drew a picture on a piece of paper, added all my seam allowances and hem/rod pocket allowances, and pulled the selvedge out along my cutting table to measure the required length. Then I sat and pulled a thread across to get a straight cut. When I got to the last couple of inches of that cut, I suddenly thought I hadn’t check to see that the cut edge of the fabric was straight. Big Damned Oops! The selvedge edge I had measured was 2″ longer than the other edge. People, I’ve been sewing for 50 years!!! How could I have forgotten to straighten the cut edge first?!!!!

So I straightened the cut edge and rethought my hem turnbacks. Instead of doubling the 2″ hem (or whatever it was), I decided to just turn back a ½” and make the hem 1½” rather than 2″. For the next two hours I turned, pressed, folded, pressed, inserted insulated lining, pinned, and stitched. Hurray – #1 done.

Pulling on my snow boots, I drove the four miles to my son’s house, let myself in, and slipped the curtain onto the rod. Oh. Shit. It was 2″ short. (By the way, I don’t care that the sheer hangs almost to the floor. Not my problem. Son doesn’t care. Grandson doesn’t care. All we care about is privacy and less cold air. But I did care about the curtain ending below the sill.)

What on earth did I do? How could I have made this error? The only thing I can think of is that I used one of those big steel measuring tapes in the yellow-and-black case. Y’know, where you have to add 2″ or 3″ to the final number you can see on the tape to get the actual length? I think I was supposed to add 3″ and failed to do so. (Huge sigh.)

I stood there and tried to think of ways to solve the problem without making an entirely new panel. I could get some fabric in the pretty army green of his walls and add a 3″ panel at the bottom and a 1″ band of trim around the panel. Or I could just cut another piece of the fabric, hem the bottom and sides, and topstitch to the wrong side of the hem of the existing panel.

Or, as DS suggested when he got home and saw it, leave it as is. Let the record show that DGS didn’t notice any problem at all.

So I made a note to add 3″ to my calculations for the next panel.

And to hit myself in the face if I ever again measure something only once.

Where Does the Time Go?

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boucle2It’s been twelve days since I last posted. Here we are, almost to the end of January. The swift passage of time seems impossible and unbelievable.

Where have I been? What have I been doing? My friend, who is the Jazzman’s closest cousin’s wife (did you follow that?), is running for the Ohio State House of Representatives in District 58, and she asked me to be her campaign treasurer. I’ve been very busy with those duties. Then, coincidentally, she needed her website built. That’s one of the hats I wear in my other life—website administration. My son agreed to take care of the build for her, and I’ve been very busy loading pages and tweaking the look.

I don’t even want to think about the number of projects that are sitting and waiting in the basement. They’ll just have to wait. In the past week I’ve had an in-person job interview with one company and a phone interview with another company. I think a lot about my cyber-fiber-friend Shams, who recently started working at Google. She’s having difficulty finding time to sew, as her commute has lengthened, and the stress of a new job with lots to learn has been challenging for her. Now, there’s no company in Youngstown with the oom-pah-pah of Google, but working full-time again would certainly change the layout of my days and weeks. So I’m pondering that—what to give up, what to clear out, how to restructure life.

This is the first interview I’ve had in three years, despite the dozens of applications I’ve completed and résumés I’ve distributed. So that feels good. Maybe it’s time to completely clean out the basement sewing room, keeping only the bare minimum of supplies. Then, in several years, when I really decide to retire (rather than being forced into it by the economy), I can start over with things I really want to have around me.

The Jazzman and I talk about moving from this beautiful old 2+ story house into a rancher, where our aching, arthritic knees wouldn’t have to maneuver stairs several times each day. If we are able to find exactly what we want and figure out what to do with this house, at least a concerted effort to unclutter and purge now would make the process of packing and moving then much easier.

So, anyway, that’s what’s running through my mind. And now a long-overdue post.

boucle1While on vacation in Maine, I stopped in at Halcyon Yarn in Bath. Oh my gosh, if I owned a yarn store, this is what I would want it to look like, and the people who work there and helped me with my purchases would be just the sort of people I’d want working with me. While there, I was looking not only for a simple knitting project for the last few days of vacation, but I was thinking about my friend-of-many-years, PianoLady, who was preparing for her daughter’s wedding. Each time PianoLady shopped for MOTB dresses, she’d send me pictures. We thought long and hard long-distance together—as good friends of 35 years do—until she found the perfect dress. At Nordstrom, of course.

The wedding was being held aboard a cruise ship in Florida just prior to taking off for a cruise around the Caribbean. And air conditioning being what it is, there was the chance she would need a light and elegant wrap to assure her comfort. When my hands touched Halcyon’s “Signature Collection Victorian Bouclé“, I swooned. It’s the stuff you dream of when clouds are involved. Then I looked at the sample stole hanging in front of the display, I couldn’t stop petting it.

I had the nice ladies at Halcyon send a skein of the bouclé to PianoLady, and bought the pattern from them. Then piano lady changed color choices on her dress, and Halcyon’s color 101 wasn’t going to work. But by then I was dreaming of tossing this scarf around my own shoulders!

So I ordered two more skeins, had PianoLady send me her skein, and packed the yarn, needles, and pattern into my carry-on for my November trip to Europe. It was the perfect travel project. No-thinking-required garter stitch – knit every row. When I got close to the end of the third skein, I decided I wanted a more generous size, so ordered a fourth skein. I finished the stole during our Christmas concerts, and then started to think what I might wear it with. Nothing! Nothing in my wardrobe called out for this stole. So guess where it lives now—on the back of the couch in front of the TV. Anytime I’m a little chilly, down it comes. I feel a touch of old-world elegance when I’m wrapped in this beautiful froth of chocolate brown wool.

This yarn and pattern is one of those vacation purchases that I’m very glad I made.